A Third Culture Foodie

Goong Ob Woon Sen (กุ้งอบวุ้นเส้น)

Hello Everyone! Tonight’s recipe is actually quite different from a traditional Goong Ob Woon Sen (Prawns and Glass Noodles in Claypot), only because my Auntie taught my Mom how to cook it very differently. I only knew that it was different when I looked up the Thai name for this dish before I started to write this post and saw other recipes that used bacon, and other ingredients to make up the broth/sauce.

Oh well. Also, you would whip up this recipe in a claypot, but since we didn’t have one, we cooked it in a regular frying pan. Actually, we remembered that my Auntie had one, and so we borrowed it and transferred the prawns and glass noodles to the claypot for the presentation. Anyway, the dish was nevertheless still delicious, but I bet would taste even better with the bacon in it – because who doesn’t love bacon?

PREP TIME 20 MINS| COOKING TIME 15 MINS| SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

750g tiger prawns, washed, cleaned, and deveined

500g glass noodles

2 cups chicken broth, hot

2 inch ginger, thinly sliced

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 heaped tbsp whole black peppercorns

1 tsp annatto powder

1 tsp chicken stock powder

Fish sauce to taste, optional

Fresh coriander, cut into 1-inch lengths

METHOD

Heat vegetable oil in a large frying pan and fry the garlic, ginger, black peppercorn until fragrant. Add in the prawns together with the chicken stock powder; mix and let to cook for about 2-3 minutes. Remove from the prawns pan, leaving the garlic, ginger slices, and peppercorns in the pan. Set the prawns aside.

Dissolve the annatto powder in the hot chicken broth and pour into the same frying pan. Bring to a boil before adding in the glass noodles. Cook the noodles in the broth until they start to soften.

Place the prawns back into the frying pan, together with the coriander and fish sauce (if you need to season it a bit more) and cook until the noodles have absorbed the gravy, about 5 minutes.

Once done, turn the heat off an transfer to a claypot. Garnish with some more coriander and serve hot. Enjoy!

PS: On the train home from Melbourne City to Cranbourne, I was going through my Instagram feed and saw that Thanis Lim also made Ob Woon Sen with a twist, adding clams instead of prawns. Maybe I will give this recipe a try, using bacon and cooking it the traditional way for next time!